The Bungee Cord. 2-15-21

Hello,

 

What is so bad about sin?

 

The answer: sin is deadly.

 

Now that may seem a bit extreme, but when you stop and take a good look at sin, it becomes all to obvious that sin is indeed deadly.  Sin, of course, is a technical term used in the Bible, and at its heart, the Bible defines sin as turning in on one’s self.  It is an eyesight problem that keeps one from seeing beyond one’s own nose.  With such myopic sight one can see how deadly it is to speed through live sinfully.  People crashing into each other with fatal force, maiming one another, and deeply bruising those who get in the way.  Colliding with their creator.  Life becoming one cruel accident scene after another.  You see, sin isn’t bad because someone has said it is bad.  Sin is bad because it brings pain, and ultimately death.  Death to people.  Death to relationships between people.  Death to the relationship with God.

 

Some might say that turning in on one’s self is necessary in order to survive, as if life is meant to be one continuous demolition derby.  But God, the creator of life, would have us know that life doesn’t have to be that way.  God would have us know that there is one far stronger, far more powerful, and far wiser who’s entire being is focused on not just our survival, but upon robust living.  That one is God.

 

When God sent his Son into the world, it was as if God was doing LASIK surgery on our severely nearsighted eyes.  God was giving us vision to see that we don’t need to be self-consumed with survival, for the one who breathed life into us has taken that into his hands.  And with such vision, we can make our daily drive able to see the people around us, we are able to see the ditches and cliffs, and we are able to see the finish line and the one who is there cheering us on.

 

There’s not a day, though, where the road doesn’t kick up dust and bugs don’t fly across our paths, filling our eyes with blurring grime and creating irritating pain.  And to plow through life without doing some eye-washing turns us back into reckless drivers again.

 

That is why I am writing about sin today, because this Wednesday is the beginning of Lent.  Lent is forty days that we take to do some intensive care on our eyes.  The quick eye washing that we do every day has a tendency to miss a bunch of the specks that cause us pain.  The relentless disturbance of dust and bugs deepens the scratches and prevents the healing of the wounds.  Lent is a time to restore the corrective laser surgery that God has done on our eyes in Jesus Christ.

 

We take these Lenten days in order that when that which we most need to see is right in front of us, we can see it.  God wants us to see all those things that bring pain and misery to our lives and the lives of those around us breathing their last as he gathered them into himself on the Good Friday cross.   And God wants us to see Jesus leaving all those dead things behind in the grave when he walked out of the Easter tomb.  God wants us to see, see clearly, that God has taken our survival…. our life…into his hands.

 

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing that with crystal clarity, and then living life with resurrection vision, bringing life into the world instead of creating so much pain.

 

Have a great week.

 

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger